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ajpscs has added a photo to the pool:
Beef bowl 🎶Beef bowl 🎶Extra-large Beef bowl 🎶
The perfect harmony of beef and rice_YOSHINOYA Ads
TOKYO DAY WALK
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North Dakota passed a law last May to promote development of rare earth minerals in the state. But the law's language apparently also includes two fake mineral names, according to the Bismarck Tribune, "that appear to be inspired by coal company lawyers who worked on the bill."
The inclusion of fictional substances is being called an embarrassment by one state official, a possible practical joke by coal industry leaders and mystifying by the lawmakers who worked on the bill, the North Dakota Monitor reported.
The fake minerals are friezium and stralium, apparent references to Christopher Friez and David Straley, attorneys for North American Coal who were closely involved in drafting the bill and its amendments. Straley said they were not responsible for adding the fake names. "I assume it was put in to embarrass us, or to make light of it, or have a practical joke," Straley said, adding it could have been a clerical error.
Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring questioned the two substances listed in state law during a recent meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which is poised to adopt rules based on the legislation... Friezium and stralium first appeared in the bill on the last afternoon of the legislative session as lawmakers hurried to pass several final bills... The amended bill is labeled as prepared by Legislative Council for Rep. Dick Anderson, R-Willow City, the prime sponsor and chair of the conference committee. Anderson said the amendments were prepared by a group of attorneys and legislators, including representatives from the coal industry...
Jonathan Fortner, president of the Lignite Energy Council that represents the coal industry, said it's unfortunate this happened in such an important bill. "From the president on down, everyone's interested in developing domestic critical minerals for national security reasons," Fortner said. "While this may have been a legislative joke between some people that somehow got through, the bigger picture is one that is important and is a very serious matter."
The inclusion of fictional substances is being called an embarrassment by one state official, a possible practical joke by coal industry leaders and mystifying by the lawmakers who worked on the bill, the North Dakota Monitor reported.
The fake minerals are friezium and stralium, apparent references to Christopher Friez and David Straley, attorneys for North American Coal who were closely involved in drafting the bill and its amendments. Straley said they were not responsible for adding the fake names. "I assume it was put in to embarrass us, or to make light of it, or have a practical joke," Straley said, adding it could have been a clerical error.
Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring questioned the two substances listed in state law during a recent meeting of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which is poised to adopt rules based on the legislation... Friezium and stralium first appeared in the bill on the last afternoon of the legislative session as lawmakers hurried to pass several final bills... The amended bill is labeled as prepared by Legislative Council for Rep. Dick Anderson, R-Willow City, the prime sponsor and chair of the conference committee. Anderson said the amendments were prepared by a group of attorneys and legislators, including representatives from the coal industry...
Jonathan Fortner, president of the Lignite Energy Council that represents the coal industry, said it's unfortunate this happened in such an important bill. "From the president on down, everyone's interested in developing domestic critical minerals for national security reasons," Fortner said. "While this may have been a legislative joke between some people that somehow got through, the bigger picture is one that is important and is a very serious matter."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
America's electric car subsidies expired at the end of September, notes Bloomberg. Yet in those last three months, "while fully electric cars and trucks made up 10% of all auto sales in the US... another 15% of transactions were for hybrid vehicles."
The EV market is slowing in the U.S., but analysts expect hybrid sales to continue accelerating. CarGurus Inc., a digital listings platform that covers most of the US auto market, predicts nearly one in six new cars next year will be a hybrid, as automakers green-light more and better machines with the technology. And though these cars and trucks will still burn gas, they will quietly move the needle on both transportation emissions and the transition to fully electric cars and trucks... CarGurus calls hybrids the success story of 2025. Indeed, the fastest-selling car in the country this year has been the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid; it sat on lots for fewer than 14 days on average...
While carmakers have struggled to turn a profit on fully electric vehicles, analysts say their investments in batteries and electric motors are helping them sell more and better hybrid machines. It's also increasingly difficult to discern a hybrid from a solely gas-powered model, said Scott Hardman, assistant director of the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California at Davis. Carmakers today often don't even label a hybrid as such. Consider Toyota's RAV4, one of the best-selling vehicles in America. The 2026 version of the SUV comes in six different variants, all of which include an electric motor and a gas tank. "A hybrid is just a regular car now," Hardman said. "You can buy one by accident...."
While not as clean as an electric vehicle, hybrids offer sneaky carbon cuts as well. Americans, on average, drive about 38 miles a day, which requires about one gallon of gas in most basic hybrids. Contemporary plug-in hybrids, which can run on all-battery power, can cover almost that entire range without the gas engine kicking in. And a small crowd of cars will do even better, stretching their batteries well over 40 miles per charge. All told, hybridization can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of a vehicle by roughly 20% to 30%, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Some interesting statistics from the article:
By 2030 Ford expects fully or partially electrified vehicles will represent half its global sales. Toyota has already reached 50% ("in part thanks to all those hybrid RAV4s").
Honda is "basing its entire business on hybrids until at least 2030."
Around one-third of America's hybrid drivers "transition to a fully electric vehicle when they next switch cars."
In September 57% of America's car shoppers "were considering a fully electric auto, according to JD Power. However, among hybrid households, that share was almost 70%."
The EV market is slowing in the U.S., but analysts expect hybrid sales to continue accelerating. CarGurus Inc., a digital listings platform that covers most of the US auto market, predicts nearly one in six new cars next year will be a hybrid, as automakers green-light more and better machines with the technology. And though these cars and trucks will still burn gas, they will quietly move the needle on both transportation emissions and the transition to fully electric cars and trucks... CarGurus calls hybrids the success story of 2025. Indeed, the fastest-selling car in the country this year has been the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid; it sat on lots for fewer than 14 days on average...
While carmakers have struggled to turn a profit on fully electric vehicles, analysts say their investments in batteries and electric motors are helping them sell more and better hybrid machines. It's also increasingly difficult to discern a hybrid from a solely gas-powered model, said Scott Hardman, assistant director of the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the University of California at Davis. Carmakers today often don't even label a hybrid as such. Consider Toyota's RAV4, one of the best-selling vehicles in America. The 2026 version of the SUV comes in six different variants, all of which include an electric motor and a gas tank. "A hybrid is just a regular car now," Hardman said. "You can buy one by accident...."
While not as clean as an electric vehicle, hybrids offer sneaky carbon cuts as well. Americans, on average, drive about 38 miles a day, which requires about one gallon of gas in most basic hybrids. Contemporary plug-in hybrids, which can run on all-battery power, can cover almost that entire range without the gas engine kicking in. And a small crowd of cars will do even better, stretching their batteries well over 40 miles per charge. All told, hybridization can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of a vehicle by roughly 20% to 30%, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
Some interesting statistics from the article:
By 2030 Ford expects fully or partially electrified vehicles will represent half its global sales. Toyota has already reached 50% ("in part thanks to all those hybrid RAV4s").
Honda is "basing its entire business on hybrids until at least 2030."
Around one-third of America's hybrid drivers "transition to a fully electric vehicle when they next switch cars."
In September 57% of America's car shoppers "were considering a fully electric auto, according to JD Power. However, among hybrid households, that share was almost 70%."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Stueyman has added a photo to the pool:
Gulls heading home to Penguin Island for the night (panning so blur on the static elements)
Rambo2100 has added a photo to the pool:
Fireworks from the middle of the NYE display. There were new colours on the bridge, including the attractive darker green.
/s3/static.nrc.nl/images/gn4/stripped/data141963778-54c31f.jpg)
WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump heeft zondag gedreigd met militaire actie in Colombia, het buurland van Venezuela. Aan boord van de Air Force One zei Trump tegen verslaggevers dat hij wel "oren heeft" naar een operatie in Colombia.
"Colombia is er slecht aan toe en het land wordt gerund door een man die er slecht aan toe is", zei Trump, mogelijk doelend op de Colombiaanse president Gustavo ​Petro. "Deze man maakt graag cocaïne en verkoopt deze aan de Verenigde Staten, maar hij zal dat niet lang meer doen", vervolgde Trump. De linkse president Petro is een fel criticus van Trump.
Bij Amerikaanse aanvallen afgelopen weekend werd de Venezolaanse president Nicolás Maduro opgepakt en uit het land ontvoerd. Petro zei daarop dat Colombia "diep bezorgd" is en stuurde extra militairen naar het grensgebied met Venezuela.
ROTTERDAM (ANP) - Een man is in de nacht van zondag op maandag gewond geraakt bij een steekincident in een woning aan de Botersloot in Rotterdam. Dat meldt de Politie Eenheid Rotterdam op X. Het incident vond rond 00.55 uur plaats.
Het slachtoffer is met spoed naar het ziekenhuis gebracht. Een vrouw is ter plekke aangehouden. De politie onderzoekt wat haar rol was bij het steekincident.
MADRID (ANP) - De Venezolaanse oppositieleider Edmundo González Urrutia heeft voor het eerst gereageerd op de ontwikkelingen in Venezuela van de afgelopen dagen. In een Spaanstalige videoboodschap die hij zondagavond via X, Facebook en Instagram verspreidde, zei hij dat het vertrek van president Nicolás Maduro een "belangrijke stap, maar niet genoeg" is. In de video verwijst González naar zichzelf als "president" en "leider" van Venezuela.
De 76-jarige González, die vorig jaar met hulp van de Nederlandse ambassade in Caracas naar Spanje vluchtte, werd door de oppositie naar voren geschoven als presidentskandidaat bij de verkiezingen van 2024. Hij verloor volgens de officiële uitslag van Maduro, maar wordt breed gezien als de echte winnaar.
Het Venezolaanse oppositiekopstuk MarĂa Corina Machado, die vorig jaar de Nobelprijs voor de Vrede won, schreef zondag in een brief dat ze wil dat González het presidentschap overneemt. Ook de Franse president Emmanuel Macron ziet een rol voor González.
"De persoon die de macht heeft gegrepen is niet langer in het land en wordt berecht", zei González, doelend op Maduro, in de video van ruim drie minuten. Hij riep op tot de onmiddellijke vrijlating van Venezolanen die vastzitten "omdat ze anders denken, hun rechten opeisen of hun grondwettelijke plicht vervullen". Het herstel van het land kan volgens hem pas worden ingezet zodra al deze gevangenen zijn vrijgelaten en de resultaten van de verkiezingen van 2024 worden "gerespecteerd".
Het Venezolaanse hooggerechtshof besloot zondag dat vicepresident Delcy RodrĂguez tijdelijk het presidentschap overneemt. Zij eiste Maduro's onmiddellijke vrijlating en noemde hem "de enige president van Venezuela".
Na de Amerikaanse luchtaanvallen zei president Donald Trump dat de VS het bestuur van het Zuid-Amerikaanse land overnemen. Trump dreigde vervolgens dat RodrĂguez een hogere prijs zal betalen dan de afgezette president Nicolás Maduro "als ze niet doet wat juist is".
"Dit is een historisch moment", zei González aan het einde van zijn videoboodschap. "We treden dit tegemoet in kalmte, overtuiging en met een sterke democratische toewijding."
